The high school Official Pharmacists of Navarra has awarded its annual award to the best doctoral thesis to Laura Inchaurraga (Far 11, EFIG 12 and PhD 17), a graduate and doctor of Pharmacy from the University of Navarra, thanks to her research on mucopenetrant nanoparticles developed at the department of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Technology of the academic center.

The award-winning work -directed by Professor Juan Manuel Irache- is degree scroll "Mucopenetrating nanoparticles for oral administration of insulin". In this study, the graduate has focused on new routes of administration of this protein, since, as she points out, in recent years peptides and proteins "have gained interest as therapeutic agents thanks to their potency and specificity of their mechanisms of action. This has been the case with insulin, which is one of the most representative. However, its parenteral administration represents a series of disadvantages associated with its invasive nature and increases interest in the development of other routes of administration".

Among them, the new doctor of pharmacy highlights the oral route as the most attractive "due to its good acceptability and cost-effectiveness. However, it also has limitations due to degradation in the gastrointestinal tract. This is where the encapsulation of the active molecule comes into play to protect it and facilitate the controlled release of the component of therapeutic interest.

A very promising starting point

With this goal, in the department of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Technology Laura characterized a new polymeric conjugate from which new nanoparticles were prepared: "We evaluated its mucopenetrating capacity in vitro -by means of novel techniques that were carried out during an international stay at the University of Greenwich, which also allowed me to obtain the international doctorate - and in vivo, in animals of laboratory. The result demonstrated a high capacity to penetrate through the mucus layer lining the intestinal epithelium, but the insulin had not been properly encapsulated".

"From here," the researcher continues, "we designed new nanoparticles from another polymer, Z, and this time we obtained good results in both permeability and insulin loading. The next step was the assessment of the efficacy in an animal model of laboratory, as well as the study of the pharmacokinetic and bioavailability profile . The results indicated that glucose levels in diabetic rats decreased, and the hypoglycemic effect was observed for 18 h."

"This is an important platform to continue perfecting the design of this attractive formulation and to reach its commercialization", concludes the graduate of the School Pharmacy and Nutrition, awarded this year by the high school Official Pharmacists.